The rotary engine will make a comeback, but it surely received’t be coming from the model most recognised for utilizing it in high-performance automobiles, Mazda, as a substitute rising from a Chinese language producer.
In accordance with Carscoops, China’s Changan Vehicle Group, which developed the Mazda 6e due in Australia in mid-2026 by means of its three way partnership with the Japanese model, has confirmed it should produce a single-rotor inner combustion engine from 2027.
It received’t be in a street automotive, nevertheless, with the 53kW rotary deliberate for a low-altitude plane, and a stronger twin-rotor model underneath improvement providing greater than twice the facility.
Changan will develop each naturally aspirated and turbocharged variations, stated Carscoops, and is engaged on the venture with ARIDGE, the flying-car arm of Chinese language automaker Xpeng, in addition to Chinese language tech big Huawei.
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Whereas the brand new rotary formally has nothing to do with Mazda, the connection between the 2 corporations suggests it may very well be the leg-up wanted to see rotary-powered Mazdas again in showrooms.
The rotary engine, generally known as the Wankel engine after Dr Felix Wankel, who first patented it in 1936, makes use of a spinning ‘rotor’ as a substitute of reciprocating pistons.
The straightforward design brings advantages together with fewer transferring components and a extra compact general measurement, promising reliability and decrease upkeep prices (in concept, not less than).
It was additionally supposed to ship smoother, quieter operation, though these traits could also be debated by fans, with the rotary’s signature ‘brap’ engine notice something however quiet in extremely modified examples.
The primary manufacturing automotive to make use of a rotary was the 1967 Ro80 from German model NSU, now represented by one of many 4 rings of the Audi model. Mazda later licensed the engine to be used in its first rotary-powered mannequin, the 1967 Cosmo.
In Australia, the R100 metropolis automotive was the primary Mazda to make use of a rotary, with the corporate suggesting on the time the engine would make standard piston powertrains redundant.
Rotary-powered Mazdas have received the Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race, the Australian Touring Automobile Championship, in addition to the Le Mans 24 Hour in France.
Whereas it has been fitted to an array of Mazdas in single-, double- and even triple-rotor guise – with turbochargers and all – the final rotary provided was the RX-8, which went off sale in 2012.
That excludes a quick return within the MX-30 range-extender electrical automobile offered in Australia between 2022 and 2023, which used a single-rotor engine to cost a battery for an electrical motor driving the entrance wheels.
Mazda followers have endured years of hypothesis surrounding the way forward for rotary-powered autos within the model’s lineup, most notably its RX-7 sports activities automotive, final produced in 2002, along with the RX-8.
Mazda has stated it continues to work on rotary engines, having proven the Imaginative and prescient X-Coupe with a twin-rotor plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain on the October 2025 Japan Mobility Present (JMS) in Tokyo.
This adopted the Mazda Iconic SP idea proven on the 2023 occasion in Tokyo as a possible rotary-powered successor to the RX-7, with a manufacturing model but to be confirmed.
